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TeL B7988 PRIOR TERRI:PINCH
PIRTLE, THURSDAY, MAHON 25, 1943.
SZITINTIZTEE TZAR
Allie. Success in North Africa Has Been Made Possible By the .
.
.
Neutrality of Spain Some elements would like to force Spain & Portugal into Axis Camp The invasion of North Africa has been a decided victory for the United Nations. As a victory, military and dip:cmatic, it has great potentialities. For two years military leaders and expert military commentators had been convinced that the Nazis could be defeated ultimately only by an invasion of the Continent. A group of enthusiastic aviators had been popularising the idea that the enemy could be defeated "by bombing Germany's industrial cenHowever plausible tres to rubble:. this theory may have appeared to the innocents, it received little, if any,
support from responsible military men here and in Great Britain, and none from the governments. On the other hand, the difficulties of an invasion of the Continent, using Britain as a base, seemed insurmountable. The failure of the experiment at Dieppe confirmed this belief and silenced much of the clamour for establishing immediately a second front in Europe. The successful invasion of North Africa has solved that perplexing problem. It has united all the French forces in that territory, which is the largest and by far the most important overseas part of the French Empire. It has brought these forces into alli-
Strategie Illediterranean 'Position
&plains British friendship or 200 \leaps air routes. From the airfields now in process of construction our increasing air forces will be able to prepare the way for invasion by the ground forces - Hitler's original blitz plan for the invasion of France. Finally, the successful invasion of North Africa has shortened the war, probably by years, and has saved millions of lives, even millions of American lives, if we consider how the war would be inevitably prolonged, without this military and diplomatic triumph.
By Owen B. McG uire in ance with the United Nations. It has given heart and hope to the millions of Frenchmen in their homeland that the outcome of the war is no longer doubtful. It has convinced the wavering and despairing among them that their defeat is temporary and does not mean that they must, however reluctantly, be forced ultimately to collaborate in Hitler's "New Order.' on Hitler's terms. It has opened the way for entire control of the Mediterranean, and
control of the Mediterranean meanscontrol of the Continent. It has furnished a springboard and numerous bases for an invasion of the Continent at points where the risks will be a thousand times less than they would be if invasion were attempted on the English Channel or on the French coast, What enhances from the Atlantic. these advantages is the shortening of
For Value and Service
"The Sign"
that has been made possible by the neutrality of Spain. Without rpani-h neutrality the invasion could All
not have been accomplished in the easy way it has taken place. If at all effective, it could have been only at the price of an enormous loss of men, ships, munitions, supplies of all kindsand precious time to boot. Spanish neutrality has been a decisive factor in the conflict ever since the war began, certainly ever since the German Army reached the Pyrenees in the collapse of France. Had Spain then joined forces with Hitler, as Mussolini did, or had she allowed a Germany army to cross Spain to the Straits of Gibraltar, Hitler might have quite possibly, even probably, won the war, and won it rapidly. He could have destroyed Gibraltar-for the all practical purposes--closed Straits, got control of the Mediterran-
ean, taken his armies across the Straits only nine miles at their narrowest point) into Spanish Morocco and Tangiers, then and now in Spanish possession. From those points there are almost continuous railroads running through the French and Italian posses. sions on to the Egyptian frontier. German efficiency in such matters could easily have closed the gaps and made the rail route really continuous. It would not require one -tenth of the rail construction which they were able to accomplish later in the Ukraine. Spanish neutrality prevented all that. That is what is meant by the value of Spanish neutrality in the past. It made possible our invasion of North Africa, and that is what is meant by its value at the present. And it will be just as valuable and necessary in the future, for the Straits must be kept open, and safe passage through the western Mediterranean must be assured, if we are to maintain in North Africa an army constantly to be augmented, equipped, supplied, and ever ready to perform the tasks for which For this end, Spanish it is sent there. neutrality is as valuable and as necessary for the future as it has been in the past. There are elements in our country that can never forgive Franco for havThey want the ing won the civil war. "Fascists" of Spain destroyed and the "democratic" government of 1936-1939 To restored to the Spanish people. accomplish this they have advocated an
Some people in this country cannot forgive FRANCO for having won the Civil War.
attack on Spain and Portugal. These two countries, if attacked, would, of course, defend their own territory, insular or metropolitan, and accept Hitler's aid in doing it. In other words, Spain and Portugal would join the Axis. But that is just what those elements (Continued on Page 4.)
Murray
Guilfoyle's Hotel Australia Registered at the G.P.O., Perth. for transmission by pos: it. a newspaper.
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